Balance Druid Quick Start Guide

This Balance Druid guide is intended for new players just trying out the spec, casually raiding or working on max-level quests like class mounts, or for someone who hasn't played the spec in awhile and wants a quick brush up on what to do. If you are looking for more in-depth information, check out the other guide sections listed on the right-hand side of this page, or the community Discords.

Stat Priority

Gear

Fresh 110s in Legion can gear up pretty quickly (~910 ilvl) between World Quests, Relinquished Tokens from Veiled Argunite, Heroic Dungeons, and PvP. Give our Legion Gearing Before Raids guide a read to learn which avenue of acquiring gear sounds the most interesting for you. Any gear can proc Warforged or Titanforged ilvl gains, so gear from any source can be a huge upgrade for new players.

As a general rule of thumb, the higher item level is typically better. Since your character is likely undergeared, it's easier to follow. (No need to run sims on your character to see if it's actually better, just use the higher item level gear.)

Trinkets are a little different. Stop by the Dreamgrove Discord channel if you have any questions about which trinkets would be best for you.

Talent Builds

Here are some simple builds for new Balance Druids. These are good all-around builds, but a more in-depth look at talents, as well as more niche recommendations for advanced situations, can be found in the Balance Druid: Talents guide.

Raids

This build is focused primarily on raiding and when the encounter is focused on single-target damage.

Examples: Krosus, Star Augur from Nighthold, or Maiden, Avatar in Tomb of Sargeras

Raids

This build is focused primarily on raiding and when the encounter is focused on multi-target damage.

Examples: Skorpyron, Spellblade Aluriel from Nighthold, or Harjatan, Sisters of the Moon in Tomb of Sargeras

This build is focused on handling World Quests. (At least the quests that don't require raids to defeat.)

You can swap around Warrior of Elune and Force of Nature at your preference. (Force of Nature is great for groups. Warrior of Elune is better for single-target.)

Artifact

Thanks to the Artifact Knowledge catch-up mechanisms added in 7.3, you'll be able to empower your artifact exceptionally quickly even if this is your first 110, acquiring the first three golden traits with little effort.

As all level 110 players are above Artifact Knowledge 40 in Patch 7.3, there are truly massive gains, allowing players to acquire numerous traits with one AP token. Artifact paths are less important in 7.3 as you'll be able to grab every possible trait, but we have included recommended paths in case you are struggling to earn Artifact Power.

Don't forget to socket your third relic slot when you hit 110. Patch 7.3 removed the quest requirements to unlock this slot. Acquiring the third relic will greatly increase the item level of your weapon and give you another free trait rank in the Netherlight Crucible.

Netherlight Crucible

Once a player has unlocked the Netherlight Crucible on one character, any character that unlocks the Vindicaar can access the Crucible and put points into the Tier 1 Trait: Netherlight Fortification. Do this to earn +15 ilvls onto your artifact.

Players with 60-75 purchased traits can unlock additional Crucible relic traits. Because your choice in Tier 2 affects which traits you can reach in Tier 3, you need to balance both the Tier 2 and Tier 3 bonuses when you make your Tier 2 choice.

However, the Crucible is complicated and the value of traits will shift based on the situation and gear. Make sure to check out the detailed Artifact Page or Netherlight Crucible page for the full list of traits.

Rotation

Balance Druids don't follow a standard rotation. Instead, we have a priority system. I will not include special conditions, such as "Time to Death," because it needlessly complicates things. To my knowledge, there are no ultra-top-tier advanced Balance Druid guides for Legion.

Talents have a huge impact on your spellcasting, but this is as cookie-cutter as I could make it: